“I don’t know what I’m doing. And it’s the not knowing that makes it interesting.”

Philip Glass (b. 1937) is a founder of the so-called minimalist composition movement, alongside Steve Reich. His and Robert Wilson’s unique opera Einstein on the Beach (1975) remains an experimental landmark.

Born in Baltimore, Glass spent several years studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, but his innovative compositional voice, making heavy use of repetition, departs from the classical tradition. He has written more than 20 operas and music theatre works.